


Rising Night: An MHA Novel

by Josie Lido (JSST)



Category: My Hero Academia
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JSST/pseuds/Josie%20Lido
Summary: You’ll see >:DWhat happens when you mess with reality?
Comments: 5
Kudos: 2





	1. Embrace

Prologue

“Are you ready? Furimuku? Shotto?” Two yeses echoed through the room. “You only have one shot at this and I cannot help you much more. I need to depend on you both. You know the plan?”

Furimuku gritted his teeth and nodded. He would not live much longer, the wound inside of him from times past ached for him to let go. But he couldn’t yet. He had a mission to complete. 

“Very well. The fate of evil is in your hands.”

  
Chapter One

The class went silent as Aizawa groggily slithered into the room. 

“Today, we are doing some things a bit different. The first thing is, Hitoshi Shinsou has been transferred to our class. The second thing is, Professor Jikken has several new tonics he wants to test out. He is a well respected scientist. So, I’ve given him permission to test them on you all.” He smiled his vicious smile at the class as their faces went white. “So, he should be here soon, I have something to discuss with the principal. I should be back with the professor. Behave. Or don’t.” Aizawa exited the classroom just as Shinsou entered. 

“Class 1A. Who would’ve thought.” He took a seat in the empty desk nest to Katsuki Bakugo. Bakugo’s red eyes widened furiously and slid towards Shinsou.

“How dare,” he forced through his teeth, “you sit next to me?!” His hand curled into fists and started fizzling. 

Shinsou smirked, intensifying the fizzling and said, “Say Bakugo, right? You’re the guy who was acting all messed up at the sports arc, right?”

Bakugo opened his fists abruptly, leaving cracks on his desk. “WHAT DI—,” and Bakugo’s eyes went hollow.

Deku started sweating. That’s what he did to me at the sports arc, he remembered. Ojiro had his lips pursed. Before he could think, Deku blurted, “Shinsou stop it!” The wild purple hair turned around towards Deku, with small smile. “Ah, but I haven’t done anything yet.” Deku wiped some of the sweat from his face and proceeded to trembling his hands. 

“What’s he doing? Why is Bakugo all…not angry?” Ejiro Kirishima asked, suspicious. 

“It’s his quirk, right? He did that to Deku at the sports arc!” Ochako Uraraka pointed at Shinsou. 

“This’ll be fun,” smiled Denki Kaminari, “he’s gonna make Bakugo do funny stuff, right?” Shinsou put his finger on his chin thoughtfully, then decided.

“Hey Bakugo, calm down.” Impossibly, the anger and tension in Bakugo’s face drained, leaving him looking quite content. The class gasped. 

“Is that—is that even possible?!” Mina stood up suddenly. 

Shinsou had a funny look on his face. “Any requests?” 

The next ten minutes were spent of Class 1A manipulating Bakugo into doing many stupid things. Deku sat in his seat feeling bad for Bakugo. If he had known about Shinsou’s quirk…well come to think of it, he probably would have said something anyways. But why was everyone so eager to—

“Deku.” Uraraka sat down beside Deku, breaking away from the crowd. 

“So what’d you make Kacchan do?” Deku asked tentatively.

“Nothing! I don’t think they should be doing this. It isn’t right!” Deku frowned, nodding his agreement. Shoto Todoroki also was not participating, he was staring off into the window by the seat he had taken. 

“Hey Midoriya, Bakugo hates you, why don’t you have him do something?” Kaminari broke from the crowd, gesturing towards Bakugo. Shouts of “Yeah Midoriya!” “I bet he’ll think of something good!” rang through the classroom. 

“No,” Deku replied, “this isn’t right and I’m not doing it.” Bakugo’s face looked a bit scraped up from someone suggested he explode his face, and he still looked alarmingly calm and blank. 

“Well then I suppose I shall have to come up for something for Midoriya,” Shinsou narrowed his eyes at Deku and a grin crept onto his face. “Bakugo, why don’t you go over there and hug Midoriya, like he’s your friend!” 

Deku went pale. “W-What?! No! Shin—,” but Bakugo was upon him, squeezing him gently. Deku had but a few seconds to inhale the scent of smokiness, and feel Bakugo’s warm arms over his shoulders, his face breathing softly down his back, edging warm quickly into Deku’s whole face and body. Deku could feel his face burning and he wondered if he could get out. He tried to move away a little, but it was no use. He started involuntarily trembling, and Bakugo embraced Deku tighter, more comfortingly. Deku’s whole body relaxed very suddenly, and the giggles of his classmates drowned out, and he found himself wondering if Shinsou had even told Bakugo to do that, and why Bakugo was so warm, and…Deku blinked and found he was starting to lean into Bakugo. His face started to burn even more, if that was possible, and he started squirming harder, when he remembered that impact could snap people out of Shinsou’s control. Deku craned his head back and brought it forward, and time almost froze as he came at an angle to see the happy look on Bakugo’s face, like he really didn’t have anything to worry about and that he belonged right here, and almost felt guilty he was interrupting these few moments without anger in Bakugo’s life, but he quickly pushed the thought away as he rammed his forehead into Bakugo’s face, hard. 

Bakugo’s gentle arms tensed uncomfortably around Deku, who started sweating profusely, realizing the bad situation he was in. Bakugo snapped his head off of Deku’s shoulder, and shoved Deku away from him. Bakugo intensely glared down at Deku. 

“What do you think you’re doing?!” He snarled at Deku, who scrambled back into his seat and cowered there.

“Uh, n-nothing! It was—,” Deku stopped, as Bakugo was preparing an explosion just for Deku. Deku gulped. 

“I’m gonna MURDER you for whatever you were doing you little—,” ribbons wrapped around Bakugo’s arms, and the building explosion fizzled out immediately.

“Back in your seat, Bakugo.” Aizawa had entered the classroom, his eyes were glowing and his hair was flowing, the telltale sign he had temporarily erased Bakugo’s quirk. Bakugo had steam coming out of his ears and he stomped back to his seat, fuming. He sat down with a growl. 

“Where’s Professor Jikken?” Tenya Iida said as he raised his arm.

“There is no Professor Jikken. Well, there is, but he was never coming.” Aizawa grinned evilly, “I just wanted to monitor your meeting with our new transfer.” He picked up a small camera he had casually paced on the desk before he left. His hair dropped, and the popping of Bakugo’s hands could be heard again. Deku swallowed the lump in his throat. He should’ve expected something like that from Aizawa. “Now, tomorrow is the Unit 3 of Hero History test, so go home and study. Dismissed.” Deku barely managed to stand up from his seat, so Iida and Uraraka came and assisted him. 

“That was really mean of Shinsou,” Uraraka said as they walked away from UA, “he shouldn’t have done that you you or Bakugo.”

“Yes, I agree. I did not ask him to do anything either you know. I was merely spectating.” Iida put his hand on Deku’s shoulder. Deku smiled halfheartedly but didn’t look at them. 

Uraraka stopped walking and looked at Deku. “Are you okay?”

Deku didn’t meet her eyes, but he nodded and said as convincingly as he could, “I’m fine!” They continued walking until they went their separate ways. 

In truth, Deku couldn’t stop thinking of the ten seconds he had spent in Bakugo’s arms. He wondered if Bakugo remembered any of it. He wondered if Bakugo was alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you are liking it so far! If you think my messy arts are worth any enjoyment to your eyes, you can find me on DeviantArt where I will be posting these arts for the public, that’s including you. https://www.deviantart.com/josielido 
> 
> Otherwise, hope you enjoy this chapter, it’s short but sweet :)


	2. Toying With Things

Furimuku had decided it was best if he knew more about himself before he inserted himself into the world. Shotto was resting in the bedroom of the apartment. Five more days, and the time would come for his quirk to fit into the plan. Luckily, the apartment had a computer, a nice one at that. Furimuku grinned, there was nothing he loved more than hacking computers. He connected some plugs and replugged them into different adapters and outlets, and then channeled the computer so it would align with the satellite dish on top the apartment. Then in the keyword code, he typed in “Midoriya”. He received a signal from a chatting network and tuned into the conversation.

@zappyboi: That was kinda awesome today, huh?

@rockredriot: Shinsou’s quirk is cool. It must be powerful too if he can make Bakugo like that. 

@zappyboi: it was really weird when he made him hug Midoriya though, wasn’t it?

@rockredriot: yeah it was almost like Midoriya was enjoying it

@zappyboi: even though he was all sweaty and red?

@rockredriot: he was flustered idiot. Didn’t you see him leaning into Bakugo at the end?

@zappyboi: oh yeah forgot that. Bakugo looked so happy too. He’s like, never happy 

@rockredriot: well we don’t know that. But he did look pretty much like he was lovin it

@zappyboi: wonder why. Doesn’t he hate Midoriya?

@rockredriot: maybe it was Shinsou. Even though Shinsou didn’t say anything

@zappyboi: yeah. Well good thing Midoriya figured out how to snap him out of it

@rockredriot: yeah he told us something like that when he was telling us about Shinsou’s quirk, like impact snaps them out or something 

@zappyboi: I feel like I’m missing something 

@rockredriot: yeah me too…wait

@zappyboi: what 

@rockredriot: if impact does that, wouldnt Bakugo have woken up when he ran into Midoriya and hugged him?

@zappyboi: …yeah so?

@rockredriot: I thought you were smarter than this dude

@zappyboi: oh come on just tell me 

@rockredriot: that means that the whole time he was hugging Midoriya he was aware of it

@zappyboi: OH MY GOD

@rockredriot: I never thought the dude was that soft! Does he like Midoriya??

@zappyboi: your guess is as good as mine

@rockredriot: I’ll ask him tomorrow if he doesn’t murder me first

@zappyboi: glad it’s you and not me

@rockredriot: we should get some sleep

@zappyboi: yeah

@rockredriot: goodnight 

@zappyboi: night

Status: offline

So he picked up apparently he had a crush on a guy named Bakugo. And Bakugo seems to also. He went on the internet and typed in “Bakugo”. The dude was pretty famous after the latest sports arc, and had clear anger issues, which must’ve been why the boys talking in the chat had been surprised at the coincidental hug that had occurred during their class. 

He hesitated for a few seconds, then typed in “Izuku Midoriya”. A mid teen boy with green hair and a determined expression popped up. Furimuku turned off the computer and compared his appearance in the mirror. He rubbed some of the grime off with cold water, and stared at the reflection of himself. He looked tired. He was tired. He needed coffee before he went out. Special coffee. He sighed heavily and trudged back into the kitchen, where Shotto was sitting on a stool. 

“Make some for me too, will ya?” Shotto blinked sleepily. But Furimuku ignored him, they both knew Shotto needed to be sleeping as much as possible to build up his energy for the big day. He started making the coffee, and poured one of the packets the boss had gave him inside. The coffee turned from creamy brown to black. How he missed regular creamy coffee he could have in the morning at UA, when he’d arrive early with Iida to study for tests. The coffee was the only thing he missed. Anger rose up inside of him and he shoved it down into the depths of himself. He would save that. He would need it. 

He stirred the coffee for two minutes, staring off into space at the city. He then drank the coffee in one gulp and dashed to the mirror. He looked the same, but happier, the scars and bruises disappearing quickly. He felt the same, and he prodded his chin for a bruise and felt the dull ache of it, though he could no longer see it. Two more minutes, and the adrenaline and pep would kick in, and he needed to find someone he ‘knew’. 

“Go back to sleep,” he directed at Shotto, before slipping on a regular gray shirt and jacket. He could already feel tingles coming, he needed to be quick. He opened the door, and with a red flash, and was off. He shot through the city, his eyes scanning the streets. After only a minutes, to his delight, he found an explosion of blonde hair walking near the coast, radiating moodiness. The people around him steered well away from his unhappy grunts. Furimuku dropped into an alleyway that Bakugo would be coming up on, and waited. He energy was with him now, and he could feel himself grinning like a fool, while sweating at the same time. Perfect. He could hear Bakugo mumbling to himself. He would need to time this perfectly. 

3…2…1…he dashed forwards just as Bakugo came up to pass by the alleyway. He knocked Bakugo off his feet and midair he nudged Bakugo slightly with his knee just enough so that Bakugo landed on his back, and on top of him landed Furimuku with both hands by his shoulders and his knees on either side. Before Bakugo opened his eyes, Furimuku edged his face closer. Much closer. He quickly proceeded to panting as if he had actually been running through the alleyway. He could smell smoky husk on Bakugo, and his crimson eyes stared up at him. For a second, his eyes were full of amazement, but Bakugo blinked and they were just stunned. Where was the inhumanly fast reaction time people had spoke of this boy? 

“D-Deku?” Bakugo stuttered. Stuttering? This ‘Bakugo’ was really over-exaggerated. From what he’d heard, he should have met at least one explosion. Then he remembered he was supposed to have a crush on this boy, and supposedly him back. Sure enough, Bakugo was frozen, and getting redder by the minute, although that could have been because he was angry. 

Furimuku stepped into his acting shoes in order to play it out perfectly. He met eyes with Bakugo for just a little to long, and kept his face close enough so that he could feel Bakugo’s breathing on him. He added a bit of redness to his own cheeks for effect, then hastily stood back up and hopped away from the boy. He paused. How did he act around Bakugo normally? Was he scared? Angry? He didn’t know, and didn’t look. Stupid. So as he watched Bakugo attempt to scramble to his feet much too awkwardly, he grinned while reddening deeper.

He raised his smile into something a bit more playful and said, “Hey, watch where you’re going, alright Bakugo?” Bakugo still said nothing, flustered, and continued to try and fit his feet underneath him. Furimuku internally rolled his eyes. Pathetic. He shoved his hands in his coat pockets as Bakugo managed to stand. 

“YOU watch where YOU’RE going, _Deku_!” Bakugo whipped back at him. Geez, this kid did have anger issues. And the way he said ‘Deku’ with such malice…he figured it must be a nickname. He let the sentence bounce off of him, much to Bakugo’s annoyance, and adopted a more irritated expression. He figured it was logical, who wouldn’t be irritated after that comment? 

“Look, are you okay or not? I have somewhere to be.” Mistake. What if the boy knew his schedule? He figured not, thankfully, due to the widened eyes of Bakugo. He hoped this was going good. He was succeeding at bringing out the boy’s true feelings. The very unsure feelings. He was beginning to doubt if the two chatting boys were even credible sources. 

But then Bakugo snapped, “Oh yeah? Where do you think you’re going?” This kid’s attitude! The boss would hate it. Thankfully, Furimuku had more tolerance than the boss. Bakugo could have simply told him to leave, in his own angry way, yet he seemed to be stalling him. He seemed to want Furimuku to stay. How sweet. He needed to diffuse this and leave shortly, not to give him the satisfaction of making Furimuku stay. He grinned on the inside. He loved toying, especially with feelings. Besides, he could feel the coffee wearing off, the tiredness creeping back into his face, slowly but surely. 

So as to stay charming, he said, “I’m sorry Bakugo. But I really have to go. See you tomorrow!” He dashed along the street until he found another alleyway. He hasn’t looked back and he had added the implication Bakugo would see him again. He had exceptionally left the kid wanting more. That is, if the kid was crushing on him at all. He was quite unsure. But if he was…well then Furimuku had done his job and done it well. He leaped back to the house, trailing red sparks behind him.


	3. Uncertainty

He was such an idiot! He had probably looked like a complete fool in front of Deku, not that he cared except for the fact that Deku probably thought something was up now. Come to think of it, Deku had been acting really, infuriating not afraid of him. He had even seemed annoyed at one point. Annoyed! That really wasn’t like Deku at all. And what had he been doing running through an alleyway? They had just got out of school so why was he wearing different clothes? Something had been very off. He had even called him ‘Bakugo’ instead of ‘Kacchan’. Deku always called him that. He kinda liked it, especially since it was only Deku that called him that. This Deku even had looked different, a little taller perhaps, more tired. He had had small braids sticking out in three places, and—Bakugo stopped himself. Had he really been looking at Deku that closely? 

He recalled when Deku had ran into him, the moments where Deku had been on top of him, and his limbs had turned to jelly. His face had been so…close. He should have twisted out from underneath Deku, or at least blown him away with a little boom. But he couldn’t move. And Bakugo almost… _liked_ it. He immediately scolded himself. Of course he hasn’t like it, dammit. It was _Deku_. The pathetic little kid who treated him like he was weak. Except…except now he didn’t. Because Deku had gotten stronger. And somehow his quirk had just decided to pop up out of nowhere turning him in a powerful green killing machine. He had kept it from Bakugo all these years. Bakugo growled and shoved his hands in his pockets, shooting a menacing glare at two passerby’s who were looking at him uncomfortably. Sure he had been mean, but Deku just didn’t seem like the kind of kid who would do that. He pushed those thoughts away and walked home in angry silence.

As he lay in his bed that night, he huffed into his pillow. Today had been a bad day. Especially that brat, Shinsou. Kirishima had explained it to him before they parted ways after school. But even if he had known, would he have shut up after the purple haired loser had insulted him like that? Of course he would’ve, dammit. And he would get him back for that too. 

All he remembered was being in the middle of yelling at Shinsou when the world went white. His head had felt all foggy and he had no idea what the heck was happening, then some of the fog cleared and he could tell he was hugging Deku, but he had no control over himself. He wanted to do something, anything else, but the impact of hugging Deku had only cleared his head enough so that he knew what was going on. He could feel Deku trying to get away but failing. And then…and then Deku had started trembling and before he knew it he wanted that to stop. He wanted Deku to feel safe. And somehow, he had hugged Deku more. And the small boy in his arms leaned into him and he smiled and he didn’t know why but he smiled. Maybe it was because Deku didn’t feel so strong anymore in his embrace, he had seemed to want to stay there with Bakugo forever, and making people feel safe, well wasn’t that what a hero was supposed to do? He had been so surprised the weight of Deku leaning on him was so heavy, like he had more burdens weighting on him then what he was letting on. Would Deku have leaned on him to feel safe?

Bakugo could feel his face getting hot in his pillow. He rolled over and huffed again. It was just warm in his room, it was summer after all. He didn’t like Deku, he didn’t like anybody. If he was gonna be the best hero, he couldn’t be weak like them. He couldn’t let them know. And he hoped the Deku didn’t think he was weak after the encounter by the alleyway. He wouldn’t allow that. He stuffed his face into his pillow again and went to sleep. 

  
The next morning as he trekked to UA, he glanced down the alleyway as he passed it. It was a quite dark alleyway. But there was clearly no one in it. He looked around to make sure nobody was watching, and he slipped in. He almost tripped on a can on the way and picked it up, ready to make it pay. He rubbed his hands together, but they were dry. Dammit, he thought, what if there’s something in here? What if…what if Deku was in here? To his dismay, his palms decided to sweat again at that thought, which did not make him happy. He grunted, but at least he could pull something now. He jogged down the alleyway and almost ran into a wall. It was a dead end. This whole alleyway, it didn’t run through to anywhere. Which meant…which meant Deku must have dropped into it from above. He had went in the alleyway on purpose. But why? Had he seen that Bakugo was going to come up on it? Sweat was dripping off his hands onto the ground. Had he…wanted to see him again? He crushed the can with his hand and blasted it apart with an explosion. His hands were trembling. God he hated this. He kicked one of can’s remaining pieces at a wall and dashed out of the alleyway and resumed his walk to UA.

At the next corner, he met up with Kirishima. 

“Hey Bakugo, I wanted to ask ya something.”

Bakugo’s hands started crackling with mini explosions. “What?” he snarled.

“When you were hugging Midoriya…was that you doing that, the whole time?” Bakugo stopped dead. He slowly looked up menacingly at Kirishima, who looked the tiniest bit more frantic, to his satisfaction. 

“Why,” he hissed, “would you ask me that?”

“Because impact is supposed to wake someone up from Shinsou’s control. So when you ran into Midoriya…well wouldn’t that have done it?” Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck and after two more seconds of bearing Bakugo’s glare, he glanced away. 

“It didn’t wake me up idiot, it only made me aware of what was happening! I would never hug that little—,” he stopped himself. Would he have though? Kirishima was giving him a funny look. He grunted deeply. 

“Do you like him?” 

That was it.

Faster than Kirishima could register, Bakugo took him by the neck of his shirt and flung him into the nearest alleyway, pinning him against the wall. He could feel the weight of Kirishima increase heavily as parts of his body turned to rock, but it was nothing Bakugo’s rippling muscles couldn’t easily handle. He accepted Kirishima, and would help him, but this was too far. Liking someone…it was like suggesting he had a weakness. Which he didn’t. He couldn’t. Heroes don’t have weaknesses. 

“Seriously man, I’m just asking. I mean, you smiled! You never smile!” He slowly let Kirishima down.

“Of course not, idiot.” Kirishima hopped out of the alleyway and they continued. It was really frustrating that Kirishima was immune to his quirk and his anger, but it made him acceptable to talk to. But that…that had been an insult. He just hoped Kirishima would change the subject. Which naturally he didn’t. 

“Then why’d you smile? Shinsou didn’t tell you to do that!” 

“Well then what DID he tell me to do?!” Bakugo flashed back.

Kirishima looked up thoughtfully. “He told you to hug Deku like he was your friend.” Bakugo’s face contorted with fury. That miserable Shinsou bastard. 

“Well then that solves it! Friends make you happy, right?!” Bakugo snapped at Kirishima. 

“Yeah, I guess.” Kirishima glanced at Bakugo and said, “you know you can talk to me, right?”

Bakugo wasn’t much for lying, and he had already lied directly to Kirishima. So he said, “yeah whatever,” grumpily and they arrived in class just as the bell rang. He spent the rest of the day avoiding meeting Deku’s eyes, and Deku was doing the same. He could tell Kirishima was observing this, but didn’t particularly care.

“You will be put in pairs that will require you to master teamwork. We’ll be taking the train to a suited environment for this exercise tomorrow at 4AM. It’s a 3 hour ride. You will all sit by your partners.” Aizawa was met by complaining groans from the class. 

“4AM?! When am I gonna sleep?!” Kaminari protested. Aizawa ignored them and started to read the partnerships. They were certainly paired into teams that didn’t seem to work well together, but Bakugo figured that would be the point of the exercise. 

“Aoyama and Tokoyami. Kirishima and Jiro. Kaminari and Shinsou. Bakugo and Midoriya.” Aizawa finished. Bakugo’s chest tingled. He attempted to suppress it. For the first time that day, he glanced over at Deku, who had turned white, not red. The tingling went away. Good, he told himself. But was it really? He assured himself that it was. He dragged through the last couple boring hours of school and then avoided Kirishima on his way home. He deserved it. Or did he? Bakugo felt anger rise up. He had to stop second guessing himself. At home, he flopped on his bed, laying awake for awhile. He couldn’t shut his eyes, he wondered if something was wrong with him. He had always managed to push away weakness, but pushing it away this time made it keep coming back stronger. His stomach turned, and he wished he could erase the Deku incident from his memory. Both Deku incidents. Maybe then this would be easier. He couldn’t fall asleep until 1AM, which he knew was bad but he figured he could sleep a bit on the train ride tomorrow. He grunted and rolled and blinked until he had suppressed his jelly feelings to a minimum, and fell asleep soundly.


	4. Sweet Dreams

Deku was terrified. And tired. He hadn’t slept til 12, which probably wasn’t as bad as some of his classmates but he still was tired. But mostly, he was terrified. He would have to sit next to Bakugo the whole ride to the exercise, and partner with him as well. Normally if he left Bakugo alone, he would receive minimal explosions, but Bakugo had seemed really on edge after Shinsou’s cruel trick. He hadn’t even looked at Deku the whole day. Did he remember what had happened while Shinsou was brainwashing him, like Deku had? Or was he like Ojiro, and didn’t remember anything? Either way, an unpredictable Bakugo was not a good sign. He just hoped Bakugo was okay. 

On the way to the train, he spotted Kirishima walking alone. Bakugo must have been avoiding him, so Deku steered over to Kirishima. 

“Where’s Bakugo?” 

Kirishima shrugged. “He was a bit in front of me, he got an earlier start.” 

Deku looked at Kirishima, who seemed a bit…rocky. “Is he okay? He’s kinda acting weird.” 

“I have a suspicion, but Bakugo denied it, and Bakugo doesn’t usually lie. But if he was lying, it would explain how he’s acting.” Kirishima blinked. He was probably tired as well, the sun hadn’t come up yet and it was still dark. 

“What’s the suspicion?” Deku was curious, because he couldn’t recall Bakugo lying through his childhood. Some of the things Bakugo sometimes said weren’t exactly facts, but they were in his opinion. 

Kirishima looked at Deku very funnily. Scanning his face. He bet he looked concerned, but he couldn’t much help it. He so tired, he couldn’t clearly think. Kirishima didn’t answer. 

They arrived at the station. Bakugo was already waiting on the train, Midnight and Aizawa were eating by the train doors, taking attendance. Unlike usual, Deku didn’t look to see who was there already. He knew he should always have his guard up but he was just…so…tired. He could only tell that most of the class was already there. He numbly sat in the seat by Bakugo. 

“Kacchan?” Deku ventured. He wondered if Bakugo was calmer or angrier when he was tired. It seemed to be calmer. Deku could maybe actually converse safely with him! Bakugo really looked beat, more than Deku. He looked like he was falling asleep already. 

“What?” He mumbled, with a weak hint of anger. 

“What did Kirishima talk to you about yesterday?” That nearly woke Bakugo up. He stood up suddenly with widened eyes. Deku couldn’t tell yet if Bakugo was angry, but he scooted back a good ways in his seat and ducked a bit, just in case. Whatever they had talked about…it seemed important. His hands clenched the chair and he started sweating. 

“Did he tell you?!” Bakugo demanded, almost frantic. 

“N-no!” Deku managed, his arms trembling. Bakugo’s wide eyes traced him down to his trembling arms, and Bakugo’s own arms twitched. Deku gulped. Did he remember more about the Shinsou trick than he let on? Bakugo’s arms twitched again. Deku tried to relax in his seat but his hands were still shaking. Bakugo’s eyes caught that too. Deku could closely see how much Bakugo was tensing his shoulders, not about to twitch again. He sat on his hands. Bakugo was paying much more attention to him than usual. Deku looked away and continued to sweat.

“It’s none of your business anyways!” Bakugo huffed, and sat back down in his own seat. After a few more blinks, Bakugo looked even more tired than before. 

Deku decided to continue. “How much of Shinsou brainwashing you do you remember?” Deku tried to come out casually so that Bakugo wouldn’t think much of the question. 

“From until I bumped into you,” Bakugo looked to the side slightly, “but I couldn’t do _anything_ til you hit me.” Deku blinked. Bakugo had just lied to him. That’s what always did when he lied, looking to the side like that. The way he had emphasized the word ‘anything’ suggested he wasn’t telling the whole truth. If the first part of what Bakugo had said was true, he remembered the whole hug. The thought of that made Deku almost start shaking again, but Bakugo didn’t seem to like it when he did that, so he tried his best to resist the urge. Emphasis on the word ‘anything’…maybe he was implying that he was still restrained but managed to do something. Or maybe it was a complete lie and he was free as soon as he hugged Deku. Deku blinked and looked at his shoes. 

Deku heard the train doors closing. Since he and Bakugo had been called last, Aizawa and Midnight were sitting behind them. The train pulled out of the station and Deku sunk farther into his seat. Bakugo was staring out the window. He looked so tired. 

“You should sleep a bit on the ride there, Kacchan,” Deku suggested. Bakugo reacted only with a numb nod. He turned his face away from the window and leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Deku looked out the other window, the one across from him where Shinsou and Kaminari were sitting. The city didn’t have much to offer, nighttime didn’t illuminate anything particularly breathtaking. Deku almost jumped when he felt something on his shoulder.

It was Bakugo. He was breathing softly, and had completely fallen asleep on Deku. Deku immediately panicked. What should he do?! If he moved Bakugo’s head off of him he might wake him up, and poor Bakugo needed the sleep but if he stayed there he might not be able to sleep on the ride there which would have disastrous results on their exercise which he couldn’t have that, he was pretty sure Aizawa was already having his doubts and—he paused his rushing thoughts and Bakugo sighed. Wow, he really was tired, Deku thought, I wonder how late he went to sleep? Then again that brought about the feeling of his own tiredness. He pushed that thought away though. The way Bakugo was leaning on him…it almost reminded him of when he did the same thing two days ago. He didn’t want to move. He wanted to sleep but…

All of a sudden he felt overwhelmingly tired. His eyes instinctively started to close on their own and he felt his own body leaning towards Bakugo. The relief of sleep swept into his body, and before his eyes closed he could see Midnight’s mist swirling by his face. He felt his head lull and lean into Bakugo. His breathing slowed and he managed a small smile before he fell asleep. 

He came up in a dream. He was in a white room with a mirror, and he saw himself looking quizzically back at him. Then his reflection tapped the mirror. 

“Is this working? Is that you? “Deku”?” His duplicate smirked and made finger quotes around the word ‘Deku’. The vibe about this other Deku…he did not like it one bit, from the way he held himself casually to the playful grin creeping across his face that didn’t look like Deku could actually pull off one bit. 

“I’ll take that stupid look on your face as a yes. Now. This is all just a dream so,” the other Deku shoved his hands nonchalantly into his pockets, “let’s see. What do I know about you… ah, who’s your crush?” 

Deku was taken aback. “M-my crush?! What do you mean?!” Deku took a step back. The other Deku looked like he was feeding on this reaction and his grin grew wider. 

“Here, touch your hand to mine on the mirror for a second.” The other Deku placed his hand on the mirror. Tentatively, Deku mimicked the action. He flashed back to the train for a split second then gasped and dropped to his knees in his dream.

“That boy, the one you seem to be sleeping on,” the other Deku raised his eyebrows thoughtfully, “Bakugo, right?”

Deku took a step back, struck. He…he always called him Kacchan, not Bakugo. “You aren’t me!” He pointed at the other Deku, his arm trembling. 

The doppelgänger shrugged carelessly. “You’re right. I’m not.” He stepped through the mirror out towards Deku. Deku’s hand dropped. The other Deku shoved his own finger into Deku’s chest and gave him a small shove. Deku stumbled backwards a bit. 

“Funny. I never thought I was this…pathetic-looking.” The other Deku smirked evilly. Deku started to lose balance of his own legs. “But…I do know quite a few things about you, Deku. And,” suddenly the other Deku had lost all menace and his voice was hollow and sad, “I’m not gonna be around much longer. Everything I’ve ever known…I finally will be able to let it all go,” the other Deku brought a fist up, and he looked quite lost, “but first I have to complete my mission. I’ll see you soon, Deku. The thing you want most…it will be taken from you. But for now…I’m just a figment of your imagination. Enjoy your nap, I’ll make sure of that at least.” The other Deku lingered a bit, looking down at Deku, who had crumbled to the ground under his gaze. Then he swiftly hopped back into the mirror, and all that was there was himself, trembling on the floor. 

His dream changed, and he was in a kitchen where a grinning Bakugo was shoving pancakes at him that smelled delicious, and he was digging in while Bakugo turned around to hide a smile while drying his hands, and they talked while Bakugo expertly poured and flipped more golden brown pancakes and Deku almost forgot about whatever had been worrying him before. 

At some point in the train ride Bakugo came out of sleep and opened his eyes sleepily, to find Deku leaning into him, deeply asleep with a big stupid grin on his face. Bakugo suppressed a smile and wondered how the idiot had ended up on him, until he realized he had fell asleep on Deku first. He couldn’t shove down his small grin, and Deku mumbled something like ‘they’re perfect Kacchan, make some more’ and grinned wider. Kacchan. That was…him. He laughed softly a bit and Deku stirred. At least no one was watching. Then his eyes closed again as mist whirled into his systems making him a bit giddy, and stupidly, he fell asleep with and identical expression to Deku’s on his own face.

  
Kirishima glanced back to see if Bakugo was getting any sleep. He was met with an unexpected sight. Deku was sleeping and grinning in Bakugo’s lap, and Bakugo was napping on Deku. Bakugo sighed and turned his head, revealing he also was smiling, definitely most unlike Bakugo. He couldn’t help but smile himself.

“Psst. Jiro.” He nudged he and gestured towards the two. Jiro leaned over to see and then looked on in amazement. Her earphone jack extended across the seat to Iida and Uraraka, whom she prodded and her jack gestured towards the seat behind them. And slowly, everyone found themselves looking at two grinning teenagers sleeping on each other. 

Aizawa was irritatedly whispering to Midnight something like ‘why’d you use your quirk on them?!’ And she replied ‘don’t you see how cute this is, Aizawa?’ and a couple minutes later the train stopped, stirring the pair from their sleep, and Deku opened his eyes first, slowly and his first glance was towards Bakugo’s stirring on top on him, and his big grin only disappeared when he saw Kirishima looking at him, Jiro craning her neck to peer over, Uraraka spectating over the back of her seat, and Iida doing the same. His face turned white and he started sweating and trembling and before his eyes were even open, Bakugo’s hand was resting on Deku’s which calmed the trembling. 

Then Bakugo sighed and opened his own eyes and his smile was gone in a flash replaced by an angry look and threats on their lives and other furious remarks. Kirishima walked out of the train thinking how awesome it would be if Bakugo was happy like he had been just a little bit more, Deku still pale and nervously looking at his shoes, Bakugo glaring so hard ahead of him that the brightening horizon might’ve split in half, both staying well away from each other. Kirishima grinned. They were partners. How long would that last?


	5. Six Rooms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter, hopefully still good tho ;)

Deku continued to stare at his feet, even as Aizawa explained the drill. He was too afraid to see the look on Bakugo’s face. His classmates had saw that too, hadn’t they? His face was still pale, and he was doing his best not to shake.

“You and your partner will be put through a maze engineered by UA’s finest. You will pass through six different rooms, each with different tests in them. You won’t know what they are until you are undergoing them, and for that reason, none of this will be taped. Your goal is to make it through all six rooms. It’s not a pass or fail, it’s for overcoming obstacles you aren’t prepared for.”

Mina raised her hand. “Why’d we have to come all the way out here this early?” She groaned. 

Aizawa smiled creepily. “No better time to train than at the crack of dawn.” He was met by weak and tired complaints. He gestured for Bakugo and Deku to be first. “There will be a sign in the room indicating the obstacle details. You have as long as you need.” The door to the hallway to the first room was opened by Midnight. Bakugo and Deku walked in and Midnight closed the door behind them and followed. 

“You two…I almost wish they’re taping it,” she commented playfully. Deku huffed. He wasn’t sure how he felt about her putting him to sleep. Bakugo opened the door to the first room and he and Deku walked through. And so it began.

Deku shook off his nervousness as best he could, crouching readily. His chest was still thumping and his hands started shaking. He tried to stop it, but glancing at Bakugo made them shake more violently. The room was empty, the sign only said ‘be on guard’ which wasn’t very helpful. Bakugo’s eyes had already found his hands. Bakugo was leaning against the wall behind him. Deku was three feet away. Deku tried two more times to stop his hands from trembling, but to no avail. Bakugo looked increasingly uncomfortable and suddenly grabbed his right hand and pulled Deku towards him. Deku could feel the circulation being cut off quickly in that hand from Bakugo’s iron grip. This was how Bakugo’s hands were always like. Except, two seconds later Bakugo loosened his grasp and gently rubbed one of Deku’s fingers with his own, way too gentle for Bakugo, and then his grip tightened again and Bakugo thrust Deku’s hand away.

“Stop that,” was all he said. They only had one second before a hand came out through the wall and grabbed Bakugo’s shoulder. Bakugo instinctively put his own hand up and brought loose an explosion but it didn’t seem to affect the hand at all. Another hand appeared and latched onto Bakugo’s other shoulder. Bakugo growled and tried to use his feet to wrench himself from the grasp of the two hands but it did nothing. The hands started to pull him through the wall. Bakugo continued to fire off explosions on both hands but they did nothing. The hands quickened their pulling pace.

“Kacchan, no!” Deku launched himself at Bakugo’s angry face which disappeared until all that was left was Bakugo’s limp hand hanging out. Deku sank to his knees. They were only on the first room, he couldn’t have lost Bakugo! He pulled on Bakugo’s hand desperately. It twitched faintly, but otherwise it was useless. Deku’s whole body was shaking now and he pounded the wall.

“Let him out!” He cried at the wall, his trembling fist dragging down by Bakugo’s hand. Bakugo’s hand grabbed Deku’s fist and Deku heard a muffled ‘pull, you bastard!’ He pulled hard and this time, Bakugo came tumbling out of the wall. The door to the next room opened. They walked into the next room and Deku swallowed a gulp. Bakugo was very unusually quiet. That couldn’t be good.

The sign read ‘face your fears’. There were two syringes filled to the top with pink milky liquid. Bakugo huffed and marched right up to one. Deku bit his lip. He went over and picked up his own. Under the syringes was a picture of an elbow. 

“Elbow?” Bakugo grunted. 

“That’s where they want us to inject this, I think.” Deku opened his elbow and squeezed it til the vein popped out, which he promptly stabbed with the syringe. As soon as he did this, chains latched around Bakugo’s arms chaining him to the floor. 

“Hey, what the—?!” And then the world fell away and Deku was sitting in a room in UA on a couch with All Might, the sunset beaming down on them both. But All Might was glaring at Deku. 

“I can’t believe you would do that!” All Might has his hands grasping hair on his forehead.

“I couldn’t move! I was too scared! I couldn’t do it,” Deku pleaded, “I’m sorry All Might.” Deku felt awful. He looked up at All Might hoping for forgiveness but finding only hard anger.

“I chose wrong…” All Might looked out at the sunset, “I should have chosen someone else to carry One For All.”

Deku went white and his insides cracked. “W-What?!” Deku started sweating, “no! I can still be a hero! It was just a mistake All Might!”

“You aren’t worthy. You aren’t good enough.”

“All Might no! Please!” Deku felt tears rise and spill from his eyes. All Might provided no sympathy. “I know it, if I work hard enough I can still be a hero! Just like you said!” 

All Might stood up from his couch as the sky outside grew unnaturally dark. Even though All Might wasn’t in his ‘symbol of peace’ form, he still was intimidating, his scraggly hair jutting all over the place. When All Might spoke again, his voice was deep and hollow.

“You’ll never be a hero.” 

Everything inside Deku broke, and sank out of the couch to his knees. He sobbed in great heaves, unable to stop, while All Might merely watched. He gasped for air and pounded the floor, tear streaming down his cheeks making his face warm and his eyes sting. Tremors ran through him until the floor he pounded was hard tile instead of carpet and he knew he was back in the second room but he couldn’t stop crying. His arms gave out and he was laying on his side, his tears puddling on his floor. Had that been real? It had felt real, all of it. He would never be a hero. He would never be good enough for anyone. He managed to open his eyes and saw Bakugo pulling his chains until one ripped out, then the other. He pried them off his wrists and exploded across the room until he was standing by Deku. 

“Come on, get up.” Bakugo said harshly, but Deku could no longer hear him. All this time at UA, the sports arc, all of it. His dreams…they would never be real. He’d been a fool to think they could. 

“Deku come on!” He nudged Deku with his foot, ignoring the fact that Deku was vibrating with trembles. The walls inside Bakugo…they were up at full force. But they were beginning to crack. He watched Deku sob, and when he saw Deku finally open his eyes, they looked sad and lost, gone or the spark and hope and joy they had held before had fizzled out. Bakugo could feel himself start to choke up and he couldn’t take it anymore. He sank to his own knees. 

He nudged Deku with his hand. “Deku we have to continue,” he choked out. He tried to channel some anger but he failed. He was being weak. He would not cry, he would NOT cry. He placed his hand on Deku. Deku grabbed it feebly and held it to his chest. Bakugo gritted his teeth to stop from crying and felt. The heartbeat. The life still pumping through Deku that seemed so broken and lost. He had seen Deku cry but never like this. 

“It’s okay.” He managed. And Deku sniffled underneath his crying and let go of Bakugo’s hand. He used one arm to prop himself to be sitting up and wiped his eyes uselessly. He charged Bakugo and hugged him while Bakugo sat there stunned. He was fighting so hard, he couldn’t be weak, he couldn’t be weak! Deku was leaning on him so much, Bakugo could feel the back of his shirt already dampening from Deku’s tears and he was trembling so much…Bakugo wanted that to stop. No one was watching this, right? 

To Deku’s surprise, he felt Bakugo’s arms inch around him, gently. He felt one of Bakugo’s hands grip his shirt. He felt Bakugo’s stiffness relax, and he allowed Deku to lean on him just a bit more. Then Bakugo pushed Deku away.

“What the hell happened?” Deku had managed to stop crying and he looked down. He couldn’t tell Bakugo, it was supposed to be a secret. And Bakugo wouldn’t understand. 

“You wouldn’t understand. I can’t tell you.” Bakugo blinked, unfazed. 

He met Deku’s green eyes with his own and said, “Try.” So Deku tried. He carefully ignored the parts of All Might talking about One For All and focused on his own feelings of the situation.

“And then—then he said I’d never be a hero.” Deku felt a single tear roll down his cheek. “That’s all.”

Bakugo hefted his weight so that he was sitting on his butt, his arms hanging over his knees. “Look, I’m no counselor or anything, but,” Bakugo looked at the ceiling, “you always help people, and your quirk is powerful, however you managed to…hide it from me. All these years. And you have friends and people that care about you and will cheer you on. Even if you think you aren’t good enough, there are friends who think otherwise and believe in you.” Bakugo averted his gaze from Deku’s eyes, but not in way so that he was lying. 

“Like you?” Deku asked.

“What?” 

“You said there were friends who thought otherwise and believed in me.” Deku looked away and awaited the answer he expected. He’d always viewed Bakugo as his friend but Bakugo had never treated him like one. Bakugo sat there, he knew what he would say in any other circumstance, that no, he thought Deku was a weak loser and that he was gonna become the greatest hero. But was that even true? Deku didn’t even hurt himself when he used his quirk anymore, not after his battle with Todoroki at the sports festival. He had adopted techniques to battle, including his own technique, and always rushed in to save people even when it was stupid. To save people like himself, even. The other part of him screamed that he wasn’t this weak, his quirk was the best and he had no doubt he could crush Deku and become the greatest hero. But that side of him was lying. And he was angry now, so angry, about many things when he knew now was the time that he shouldn’t be, but he couldn’t help it.

“ _Friends_ don’t pretend to be quirkless for years!” Bakugo snapped at Deku. Deku looked to the side guiltily.

“I—I want to tell you about that, Kacchan, really I do, but I can’t. I’m not supposed to.” Bakugo tilted his head away.

“Why not?!” He spat, “who the hell is watching this anyways?” Deku paled and looked at Bakugo.

“Please Kacchan, don’t force me into this!”

Bakugo sneered. “Fine! Just keep in your mind that if I am your so-called friend, you’ve kept this a secret from me for your entire life. Sit with that.” He waited, but Deku made no move to tell him. “Guess it’s my turn then.” Bakugo stood up and headed for the syringe. As the needle touched his vein, the expected chains came up, but Deku broke them with his quirk and watched as Bakugo dropped the syringe and looked around him with blank eyes. 

“No I’m not.” Bakugo said. His hands crackled. Meanwhile, Deku was trying to figure out the syringes. They seemed to put you in a stimulation that you weren’t aware of being in once you were in it. He hadn’t thought he was in a stimulation when he was until he came out of it, so judging by the look on Bakugo’s face, he had no idea he was in one. Bakugo staggered backwards as if he had been hit by some invisible force. Deku hadn’t paid attention to what he had been saying before, but Bakugo had a hard look on his face and let loose an explosion at the thin air in front of him. He then looked quite scared, and then terrified, and he sank to his knees looking up at something only he could see.

“T-that’s not true. You’re lying!” Bakugo yelled feebly. Deku felt that familiar frozen feeling in his joints, when he rushed in with no plan and no sense, but he tried to save someone. And before he knew it he was kneeling across from Bakugo. He took both Bakugo’s hands.

“Snap out of it, Kacchan! This isn’t real!” Bakugo didn’t seem to hear him, until he gripped Deku’s hands tighter. 

“No. No! You lying bastard!” Deku rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a full scale explosion at the air in front of him. Someone was telling him something he couldn’t bear to hear. 

“It’s a stimulation! Wake up! You can wake up!” Deku was in front of Bakugo again, who looked like someone had broken him on the inside. He put his hands on Bakugo’s shoulders and shook him. He shoved him, he pulled on his hair. Bakugo seemed not to feel any of it. Deku sighed and figured the only way to wake up was to face the worst of the stimulation. He had no idea what Bakugo was seeing, but he hoped he’d be okay. Deku settling for sitting by Deku, shaking, his hands gripping his knees. And Bakugo put his arm out to the side for balance and they met Deku’s trembling knees.

“Kacchan, please.” Deku tried one last time. And just like that, Bakugo’s eyes resumed color and he blinked a few times. He looked around baffled, then he saw Deku.

“What did you do?” He growled at Deku. Deku started to scoot away and shake his head, but Bakugo grabbed his shoulders and nailed him to the wall, his hands smoking, “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Bakugo roared again, his eyes wide but desperate.

“It was a stimulation Kacchan, i-it wasn’t real!” Deku stuttered. 

“You were right there in front of me stupid, How was that a—,” Bakugo paused as the door to the third room creaked open. 

“Whatever you saw, it wasn’t actually me, I swear!” Deku pleaded. He didn’t ask what Bakugo had seen, he knew he’d be blown up before he could get an answer. Bakugo let him down and grunted, storming through the third door. 

The next three rooms weren’t very hard. The third room consisted of snakes hanging from the ceiling, long mambas who’s teeth drilled acid onto the floor. They army crawled underneath of those, and both of them were only splattered a few times. 

The fourth room was almost a joke, it was merely just a wooden beam over lava, but Bakugo blasted his way across while Deku focused his quirk into his legs and leapt across.

The fifth room had a shadow who could move at blinding speeds, it would kick them and ouch them and then dart away before they could even land a hit. Bakugo stood in the middle of the room and crouched down.

“Get between my legs,” he said to Deku.

“What?”

“Just do it, loser!” Deku dove underneath Bakugo as the shadow continued zipping around everywhere. Bakugo’s hands fizzled and then he let loose and explosion so big it overtook the whole room. When the smoke dispersed, the shadow was gone, meaning Bakugo had successfully hit it. But he looked spent, his face had tiny scratches all over it and his hands were slightly charred. He blinked heavily and stumbled backwards, and in a flash Deku caught him. They looked at each other for a few seconds and then Deku felt his face burning and hoisted Bakugo back up. He rubbed the back of his neck. 

The door to the last room opened, and the sign read ‘only one of you will be immune’. 

“The hell does that mean?” Bakugo snarled. Immune to what? Deku looked up and saw holes in the ceiling of the room open. Purple mist poured down into the room and he met eyes with Bakugo, both wondering what the mist would do. It wasn’t like Midnight’s mist, it was less lethargic and foggy. As it reached them, Deku took a deep inhale. It had no scent whatsoever, and dint seem to be doing anything.

“You smell that?” Bakugo asked him. Deku shook his head. The holes in the ceiling closed and the mist fell to surround their feet. They had both inhaled it. Now what? All of a sudden, Bakugo started giggling childishly.

“What?” Deku furrowed his eyebrows. Bakugo stumbled dizzily, grinning and blinking. 

Bakugo giggled again pointed at Deku, and booped his nose. “You, boop!” Deku read the sign again, ‘only one of you will be immune’. He seemed to be unaffected by the mist while it was making Bakugo silly. Bakugo leaned on one of the walls for support, and Deku sneezed. Bakugo burst into another fit of giggles. 

“What?” Deku wiped his nose. 

“That,” Bakugo pointed at him floppily, “was _adorable_.” Deku turned red. This wasn’t like Bakugo at all. 

“Aw now you’re blushing.” Bakugo grinned wider, and Deku back up to the other side of the room. How were they going to get out? He checked the door, but it was still closed. Bakugo heaved himself off the and stumbled around the room, his legs not quite working correctly. Deku moved a bit closer and Bakugo tripped and fell backwards. Deku hated to do this, but he caught Bakugo again. Bakugo looked up at him, smiling. 

“Well hello there cutie,” Bakugo laughed. Deku could feel his face getting hot again, and he hoisted Bakugo back to his feet. He started to back away again but Bakugo stumbled again and he paused.

“You’re making me dizzy, you know.” Bakugo pointed at Deku, whose nose was running. He felt a bit stuffy, maybe the mist had other side effects.

“Me? How?” Deku wiped his nose with his sleeve.

“You being here. With me.” Deku sneezed again and then turned away to hide his burning face but Bakugo wasn’t allowing that. 

He took a step towards Deku and fell over. He appeared to be getting dizzier by the minute. 

Deku rushed over. “Are you okay?”

“Well it looks like I just fell for you.” Deku could feel his hands sweating and his face was warm again. 

“Can you get up?” Bakugo didn’t answer and started having a coughing fit. When it ended, Bakugo’s eyes looked duller. Bakugo made an attempt to get up, but none of his limbs seemed to be working anymore. He coughed weakly. The mist seemed to be doing something else. Making him sick or something. 

“Kacchan? Come on, get up!” Deku tried to heave him up, but Bakugo was much too heavy. 

“I always did like that name.” Bakugo managed weakly then closed his eyes. 

“Kacchan?! Kacchan!” Deku dropped down to Bakugo’s level. He felt his pulse, it was disappearing fast. The exercise wasn’t supposed to kill people! What if something went wrong, what if Bakugo was deathly allergic to the mist or something?!

“No no no no no no no no!” He pressed on Bakugo’s chest and then remembered he had no idea how to do CPR. He felt like as a hero-in-training, he should have learned how to do that! 

“Stop stop stop, don’t die Kacchan, please don’t die!” He pounded on one of the walls thinking maybe one of the teachers could hear him but nothing happened. He started crying even though he probably shouldn’t and crawled back to Bakugo.

“Please, I can’t lose you.” He put his hand on Bakugo’s face and Bakugo stirred. Bakugo’s hand feebly rose up to meet his and clasped it. His eyes squinted open for just a second and closed again, but he was alive, oh thank god he was alive. The door opened and Midnight was waiting in the hallway, and the rest was a blur, he merely remembered them carrying him outside. Aizawa explained that he hadn’t actually been dying, but the mist was supposed to feign it. You had to say something very serious to wake the person up. In twenty minutes, Bakugo recovered fully, and Deku didn’t hesitate to sit by him on the grass outside the building the whole time waiting for his classmates. And on the train ride home, both of them were exhausted and had no embarrassment continuing their previous sleeping arrangement.

**Author's Note:**

> We’re just getting started...


End file.
